Mumbaiites, for some reason, do not generally think highly of the 103 square kilometer National Park and seem to treat it like it was only a picnic area. I’m not sure why, because some of my best memories are of the National Park. So much so, every year I book a room at one of the 5 Star Mumbai Hotels for a week just so I can visit the park. I first always have to walk from the main gate to the Kanheri Caves . The road if flanked by trees. A stream quietly gurgles lazily by on one side and on the other side there is dense dark foliage.
This time I brought my children, which are now old enough to take the walk with me. They enjoyed the sounds of chirping crickets and watched as the wind swayed the trees. We spotted birds singing and flying through the air which created a natural peacefulness. We brought along with us a picnic, Vada Pao with red chilly and garlic chutney, along with fresh cut cucumbers. We eat right outside of the Kanheri Caves, a ritual which I did everytime I came here, and now share with my children. They mostly appreciated the monkeys more than my ritual.
Once inside the Kanheri Caves and exploring, I and my children became excited. There are actually 109 caves to see, but that could take years to see them all. Most of the caves are Buddhist caves , so they are quite bare and very similar to each other, and so my children started to get bored. But, I would work on expanding their imagination in each cave, which made them want to continue to explore. I would tell them to see if they could find the rock with Brahmi inscriptions or the huge cave hall with a Buddha statue adorning the wall from top to bottom.
Then we climbed up to the open air assembly area and enjoy a nice breeze and the panoramic view of the forest and mountains. We let our minds wander about how it must have been back in the day, when these caves were busy with spiritual energy. I would tell my children to see it with your mind’s eye and imagine all the monks meditating or chanting. It was time to head back, but my children wanted to stay. I had to almost drag them back to the car hire. I told them we will be back next year, so keep those imaginations working for our next visit.